A Jasmine By Any Other Spelling

When you meet a new freshman, do you ever feel like you’re hearing the same introduction over and over again? That the faces may be changing, but something is just oddly repetitive?

It isn’t just you. According to a Mary Baldwin Cupola Now news email released September 13, 2012, there are nine women named Jasmine in the Class of 2016. Even before it was officially reported on, fellow freshmen definitely took note during welcome week. “I met two Jasmines my first
day at Mary Baldwin,” said Brianne Perry, class of 2016. “I knew a lot more by the end of the week.”

Could there be a particular reason why this happened? Consider when the vast majority of the freshmen Fighting Squirrels were born: 1993 and 1994. According to the Social Security Administration website, Jasmine (or any of its common spelling variants, like Jazmine) did not make the national top twenty names list either year. However, in 1993 and 1994, it was numbers fourteen and eighteen, respectively, in the state of Virginia, where the majority of the Class of 2016 is from. Ultimately, it is nearly impossible to completely justify why, beyond a simple coincidence.

Most of the Jasmines themselves are not bothered. “It can be confusing, when there are three or more in a class,” said Jasmine Lycurgus-Truitt, class of 2016, “But other than that, it isn’t really bad.”

Others can see the very positive side of it. “I feel that Jasmines are statistically the most successful,” said Freshman, Jasmine Chavis, “Because we all made it to college!”